Careful What You Pray For
On a recent Woodmen mission trip, at M4 Ready Camp, believers from across Europe and the U.S. came together to learn, serve, and grow in their calling to church planting. Through shared meals, worship and humble acts of service, they experienced the beauty of community and the power of answered prayer.
“Be careful what you pray for, because you may be the answer to that prayer. When you pray for workers for the harvest, you might be the one God calls to labor,” Claudio shared.
He was leading a session at the M4 Ready Camp—a weeklong gathering of people interested in church planting in Europe. M4’s focus was to ignite church planting movements across the continent. They served and equipped national and regional leadership teams to collaborate in recruiting and coaching church planters to launch churches that glorify God and impact society.
Claudio was one of many Romanians at the camp, but he was in good company with Christ-followers from Ukraine, Moldova, Latvia, and the United States. From working in the kitchen to teaching, from leading worship to praying with people, our Woodmen team came with open hearts and open hands, serving however we could.
It was day two of the camp, so everyone was still getting to know one another. It had been toasty hot—in the high 90s the last three days. But the heat only added to a spirit of mutual support as we dove into what God had for us.
“We want the camp to be a learning community, so we’re facilitating environments where we all grow and disciple each other,” said Nelutu Iubes, M4 Country Director for Romania. “We’re pioneering something new here this year. There are not ‘staff’ and ‘campers.’ We’re all coming together to serve and learn from one another.”
In a session on worship that afternoon, Gabriella from Romania shared, “Sometimes we might not feel worthy if we’re just humbly serving, but God is helping me to find purpose in a simple life.”
The group—comprised of Ukrainians, Romanians, and Americans—had fun riffing, imagining a new paradigm: What if we celebrated and affirmed those taking out the trash or doing simple acts of service? Those tasks, if they served others and served God, could be worship, too. They could reflect our God who brings order from chaos. And sometimes they even set the stage for more impactful ministry. Maybe we should’ve had spotlights and fog machines for taking out the trash? Or maybe a celebration with fireworks?!?
In that morning’s session, Stas from Ukraine had trouble putting words together in English to share an insight on how God transforms lives. The group came up with a plan: Stas shared his idea with David, also from Ukraine. David knew Romanian, so he translated the idea to Philip. Philip then translated it from Romanian to English, so the rest of the group could learn from Stas’ insight. Did the process take some extra time? Yes. Did it take a community to facilitate learning for everyone in the group? For sure.
But in the end, brothers and sisters in Christ were there together, breaking down walls and growing in Christ. And we were all united in serving one another along the way.
And that was an answer to prayer. Will you take a moment and join us in praying for the church planters of M4 Europe? And, like Claudio said—be careful what you pray for.
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